Lots of new faces on Dover-Sherborn High boys basketball squad

Thursday

Dec 19, 2013 at 12:01 AMDec 19, 2013 at 7:11 PM

“We won’t use our inexperience as an excuse,” Grady said. “We know we can compete. We had two scrimmages this year, one against Wellesley and one against Cathedral in Boston, and they were both very good tests for us. We wanted to make sure we scheduled quality scrimmages.”

Mike McMahon, dover-sherborn@wickedlocal.com

This season’s Dover-Sherborn High School boys basketball team will be filled with many new faces, but head coach Rick Grady doesn’t believe that should mean any lack of success.

Of the 13 players on the Raiders’ varsity roster, nine are first-time varsity players, as D-S returns just four players from last year’s 11-10 team, composed of two seniors and two juniors.

“We won’t use our inexperience as an excuse,” Grady said. “We know we can compete. We had two scrimmages this year, one against Wellesley and one against Cathedral in Boston, and they were both very good tests for us. We wanted to make sure we scheduled quality scrimmages.”

The Raiders opened the season on Friday, falling on the road to Hopkinton, 49-45. D-S led by seven points at halftime.

“We had under 10 turnovers and rebounded very well,” Grady said. “Defensively I was very pleased with our effort and we had the chance to win the game, in Hopkinton, which is never easy.”

Guard Andrea Kontopidis and center Brian Thompson, both returning juniors, led the way for the Raiders. Kontopidis, who led the team with 16 points, is transitioning from forward to guard this season.

“Both of those guys played significant minutes last year as sophomores,” Grady said. “Andreas has always had the type of skill you like in a guard. We graduated some guards last year and had another transfer, so it became a necessity to have experience back there to handle the ball, and we know he can do that. He will certainly be the focus of other teams this year when we play our opponents.”

Grady has also been impressed by some of his nine newcomers, including sophomore guard Will Spangenberg.

“Will is a really competitive kid,” Grady said. “He’s making the jump from freshman to varsity, so that’s a big jump, but he’s shown a lot of mental toughness and he’s shown us that he belongs (on varsity). We’ve been encouraged with the way he has progressed and we expect that progression to continue.”

Players such as Spangenberg and other first-time varsity players are helped by the fact that D-S coaches all work within the entire program, so the message and verbiage from the coaching staff is consistent throughout the program.

“There are clear expectations,” Grady said. “Obviously in terms of style of play, our scheme may change from year to year based on personnel, but the message of working hard is always there and the way we communicate defensively rarely changes.”

Defense will be key for the Raiders early in the season, as new players acclimate to the speed of the game at the varsity level. Grady said he was encouraged by D-S defensive effort against Hopkinton, limiting the Hawks to just 49 points, and those types of effort will need to be the constant in the early goings.

“I certainly feel as if we’ll improve as the year goes on,” Grady said. “The type of team we’ll be this year will require that we focus and play good defense. We’ll need to take care of the basketball and we can’t turn it over, and then we might need to be a little more methodical at the start of the season on offense but at the same time, we don’t expect to have have success early on. You need to be good enough to win, and we’ve talked about that with our guys.”

The Raiders traveled to Norton on Tuesday before hosting Medfield on Friday.